cannonpirate
Active Member
(note, I posted this in the beggining of my grow journal)
Hey all,
Well, I made the plunge last June and purchased a BCNL Producer. I'm gonna write a review on this thing from first impressions/setup all the way thru my first grow. When I was looking into buying this thing I didn't see many comprehensive reviews of it so, hopefully I can help others make a more informed decision on purchasing this BCNL product in particular.
Sales experience:
The sales team was pretty well trained, they had good counters to any questions I had as to the value/effectiveness of the unit. I like to give salesmen a hard time in terms of pricing/extras so I spoke to a few different reps, asking for several different configurations/times of the month. The pricing was pretty firm, however I don't think I ordered enough equipment to really haggle a whole lot.
Ordering: When I did order I waited until the day before their shipping date for the month assuming that this would be the best time to get them to cut a deal to fill space on their truck. I got a few bucks off and had them throw in a PH pen. Although, the PH pen showed up on the invoice it never showed up with the equipment. That was a little disappointing, however I never followed up on it so I can't really hold it against them. In addition they asked for my SSN# with the order, I was extremely unhappy with that, in retrospect I should have refused making it a deal breaker. All in all the ordering process went pretty smoothly.
Shipping: Shipping on the other hand was the low point of the customer service interaction. I was working on a tight timeframe before my October move and wanted to get atleast one grow in before I moved. I was told the shipping takes approximately 7-10 days. About 3 weeks later my box arrived. In their defense a week and a half of the delay was out of their control. (Yellow freight didn't have a truck with a power lift avail.) However, once they had my money I basicly heard nothing until I shot off an email asking for tracking info. They said they shipped on a Friday, however it didn't go out until the following wed. Again, this may not sound like a big deal but I let the rep know that I was under time constraints. If I knew the shipping was going to be closer to 3 weeks instead of 7-10 days I wouldn't have ordered until I was settled into my new place in October. Once I got the shipping info I never received any follow up which was a little disappointing since I dropped a couple grand on a product.
Arrival: Well, when I finally did get the machine it was extremely well packed, everything was in perfect condition. Everything was there that I ordered except for the PH pen. It sat all summer until this morning when I set it up.
Setup: setup was pretty smooth, it comes with a great manual, and it took me about an hour to sterilize the inside and install the lights/pumps/odds and ends.
Fire that baby up!!!: So the moment of truth, well I fired it up everything worked perfectly, it was truly a magnificent site. However, there are alot of light leaks. All in all on the front of hte machine alone there are probably 12+ different light leaks. The corners leak, the doors leak, the control unit display leaks, the rocker switches leak, I mean the thing is lit up like a christmas tree. In my situation its not really a big deal, however since it is marketed as a stealth growing unit this was definately a big disappointment, I'm just hoping that these dont become smell leaks because that will be an issue.
So to sum it up, I'm lukewarm on this thing at this point, maybe a little buyers remorse but I'm optimistic that it will perform.
Sales: A+
CS: C
Shipping: B- (BCNL) C-(yellow frieght)
Product: B- (would be A+ if there weren't a ton of light leaks)
I'll have some pictures up tommorow morning of the light leaks and what not. Hope this was helpful to anyone considering buying on of these things. The final verdict is till out on this thing, but I'm gonna take you on a detailed ride of how this thing turns out.
Hey all,
Well, I made the plunge last June and purchased a BCNL Producer. I'm gonna write a review on this thing from first impressions/setup all the way thru my first grow. When I was looking into buying this thing I didn't see many comprehensive reviews of it so, hopefully I can help others make a more informed decision on purchasing this BCNL product in particular.
Sales experience:
The sales team was pretty well trained, they had good counters to any questions I had as to the value/effectiveness of the unit. I like to give salesmen a hard time in terms of pricing/extras so I spoke to a few different reps, asking for several different configurations/times of the month. The pricing was pretty firm, however I don't think I ordered enough equipment to really haggle a whole lot.
Ordering: When I did order I waited until the day before their shipping date for the month assuming that this would be the best time to get them to cut a deal to fill space on their truck. I got a few bucks off and had them throw in a PH pen. Although, the PH pen showed up on the invoice it never showed up with the equipment. That was a little disappointing, however I never followed up on it so I can't really hold it against them. In addition they asked for my SSN# with the order, I was extremely unhappy with that, in retrospect I should have refused making it a deal breaker. All in all the ordering process went pretty smoothly.
Shipping: Shipping on the other hand was the low point of the customer service interaction. I was working on a tight timeframe before my October move and wanted to get atleast one grow in before I moved. I was told the shipping takes approximately 7-10 days. About 3 weeks later my box arrived. In their defense a week and a half of the delay was out of their control. (Yellow freight didn't have a truck with a power lift avail.) However, once they had my money I basicly heard nothing until I shot off an email asking for tracking info. They said they shipped on a Friday, however it didn't go out until the following wed. Again, this may not sound like a big deal but I let the rep know that I was under time constraints. If I knew the shipping was going to be closer to 3 weeks instead of 7-10 days I wouldn't have ordered until I was settled into my new place in October. Once I got the shipping info I never received any follow up which was a little disappointing since I dropped a couple grand on a product.
Arrival: Well, when I finally did get the machine it was extremely well packed, everything was in perfect condition. Everything was there that I ordered except for the PH pen. It sat all summer until this morning when I set it up.
Setup: setup was pretty smooth, it comes with a great manual, and it took me about an hour to sterilize the inside and install the lights/pumps/odds and ends.
Fire that baby up!!!: So the moment of truth, well I fired it up everything worked perfectly, it was truly a magnificent site. However, there are alot of light leaks. All in all on the front of hte machine alone there are probably 12+ different light leaks. The corners leak, the doors leak, the control unit display leaks, the rocker switches leak, I mean the thing is lit up like a christmas tree. In my situation its not really a big deal, however since it is marketed as a stealth growing unit this was definately a big disappointment, I'm just hoping that these dont become smell leaks because that will be an issue.
So to sum it up, I'm lukewarm on this thing at this point, maybe a little buyers remorse but I'm optimistic that it will perform.
Sales: A+
CS: C
Shipping: B- (BCNL) C-(yellow frieght)
Product: B- (would be A+ if there weren't a ton of light leaks)
I'll have some pictures up tommorow morning of the light leaks and what not. Hope this was helpful to anyone considering buying on of these things. The final verdict is till out on this thing, but I'm gonna take you on a detailed ride of how this thing turns out.
